U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley touted the importance
of music and arts education in a speech on Thursday (3/19) focusing
solely on this topic during his appearance at an arts magnet high
school in New Haven, Connecticut. For those of you who were looking
for encouraging words to counter balance the relentless "Reading and
Math, Reading and Math, Reading and Math" mantra from the
Administration, this comes as a welcome and pleasant relief. Some
excerpts:

"I have long believed in the important role that music and the
arts can play in helping students learn, achieve, and succeed."

"But there are also very tangible and measurable benefits to
education and academic success that come from learning about, and
participating in the arts and music. One study showed that
pre-schoolers who took keyboard lessons and joined in group singing
scored higher on tests measuring spatial reasoning and develop better
abstract reasoning than those who did not -- activities that are of
critical importance in later development of math, science and
engineering skills."

"The good news is that more and more people are beginning to
understand this very positive relationship between the arts and
learning. As President Clinton said: 'We know there's so much
evidence that music has a positive impact on academic performance, on
social skills, on self-confidence. Anything this country can do to
save these programs for the schools and for the children should be
done.'"

There is much, much, more than we have room for here. But, fear
not! We have transcribed the speech and will have it placed into
"Breaking News" on the AMC web site ASAP (http://www.amc-music.com).
It is something every parent, teacher, school board member and above
all arts educator should see!!